I make this every year--I wish I could use my own nonna's recipe, but she was, like me, a tinkerer, and I found no less than 5 recipes for pastiera in her own collection. I've done a lot of tinkering and researching on my own and tried different variables--more eggs, fewer eggs, whisked whites, pastry cream, lard, butter, etc--before settling on my favorite iteration (pastry cream is a yes, fewer eggs is a yes, along with a nice splash of cointreau for a nontraditional touch). The one sticking point for me (literally!) is that I have never found a pastry dough (pasta frolla) that doesn't fall apart when I try to line my pie plates; it's very much like a sugar cookie dough, all butter and eggs without much gluten, and I always end up running back and forth between the counter and the freezer and still sticking pieces in by hand. Any tips?
So beautiful and delicious, thank you, Emiko!
Thank you Jolene! It is such a treat!
I make this every year--I wish I could use my own nonna's recipe, but she was, like me, a tinkerer, and I found no less than 5 recipes for pastiera in her own collection. I've done a lot of tinkering and researching on my own and tried different variables--more eggs, fewer eggs, whisked whites, pastry cream, lard, butter, etc--before settling on my favorite iteration (pastry cream is a yes, fewer eggs is a yes, along with a nice splash of cointreau for a nontraditional touch). The one sticking point for me (literally!) is that I have never found a pastry dough (pasta frolla) that doesn't fall apart when I try to line my pie plates; it's very much like a sugar cookie dough, all butter and eggs without much gluten, and I always end up running back and forth between the counter and the freezer and still sticking pieces in by hand. Any tips?